Share this Story

Race and Education: The 50th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education

by Jack Ludwig

Gains have been substantial; improvement still needed

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE

PRINCETON, NJ -- As the 50th anniversary of the U.S.
Supreme Court's landmark decision on racial segregation in public
schools approaches, recent Gallup polling finds that the vast
majority of Americans (90%) acknowledge that educational
opportunities for black children have gotten better since 1954. But
other results indicate that equality in education remains elusive.
According to the new survey, a majority of adults (59%) think that
black children in the United States do have educational
opportunities equal to those of white children, but nearly 4 in 10
(38%) say that they do not. Nearly one-third of those who believe
that black children do not have equal educational options say that
the situation is due to discrimination (31%) rather than some other
reason (68%).

Brown v. Board of Education

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declared on May
17, 1954, that racially separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal, and in violation of "the equal protection of
the laws guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment." At that time, 17
southern states and the District of Columbia had mandatory racial
segregation in their public schools, and several additional states
left the issue to the discretion of individual school districts. In
the early 1950s, challenges to the legality of segregated schools
filtered up to the Supreme Court from South Carolina, Kansas,
Virginia, Delaware, and the District of Columbia. These were
consolidated into a single case that became known as Brown v.
Board of Education, named after Oliver Brown, the lead
plaintiff in the Kansas case. Brown brought the suit against the
Topeka Board of Education on behalf of his seven-year-old daughter
Linda, who was forced to travel nearly one and a half hours to
school, along a dangerous route to reach her segregated school
every day, while her white friends attended a school only seven
blocks from her home.

In a unanimous decision, destined to change the face of race
relations in the United States and to kindle the passions and hopes
of a nascent civil rights movement, the Supreme Court declared it
unconstitutional to create separate schools for children based on
their race. Brown and the other plaintiffs were represented by
Thurgood Marshall, who -- nominated by former President Lyndon
Johnson -- would later become the first black justice appointed to
the Supreme Court.

At the time of the decision, a Gallup Poll found that Americans
were closely divided on the Supreme Court decision. Within days of
the announcement, Gallup asked the following question of a national
sample of adults:

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that racial
segregation in the public schools is illegal. This means that all
children, no matter what their race, must be allowed to go to the
same schools. Do you approve or disapprove of this
decision?

A bare majority (54%) approved of the ruling, while a large
minority of 41% disapproved. Now, 50 years later, the results of a
new Gallup Poll on Race and Education suggest that while important
and unmistakable progress has been made, the nation still has a
significant distance to travel. As noted, while 90% recognize
improvements in education for black children since 1954, nearly 4
in 10 (38%) believe that educational opportunities remain
unequal.

Results by Race

Opinions on educational opportunities diverge sharply along
racial lines: two-thirds of blacks (68%) hold the belief that black
children do not have education parity with white children, compared
with only one-third of whites (34%) taking this position. And while
large majorities of both blacks and whites feel that progress has
been made in educational equality over the past 50 years, this
belief is significantly more prevalent among whites (92%) than it
is for blacks (77%).

Equal Educational Opportunities for
Black Children in the United States?

January-March 2004

Educational Opportunities for
Black Children Today Compared to 50 Years Ago

January-March 2004

Americans were asked what would be the most important way to
improve educational opportunities for black children in the United
States today. In open-ended probing, the most widely held
suggestions involved maintaining equality of standards, having
families take more responsibility, providing more funding, and
better teachers. Blacks are somewhat more likely than whites to
offer suggestions, but among those of either race who do, the
results are broadly similar. Nevertheless, blacks are less likely
than whites to suggest the need for greater family responsibility
and more likely than whites to suggest the need for better
teachers.

Most Important Way to Improve
Educational Opportunities for
Black Children in the U.S. Today

National Adults

Whites

Blacks

%

%

%

Have the same standards/equal opportunity

11

10

12

More family responsibility

10

11

5

Better funding/financing in general

7

7

9

Better teachers

7

6

12

Greater encouragement to attend school

5

5

7

Improve educational system overall

4

4

5

Better schools/more schools

4

4

5

Improve economic conditions

4

4

4

Focus on funding the inner city schools

4

4

2

Less discrimination/racism

4

4

4

Allow a voucher system

3

3

1

More help with scholarships/grants

2

2

3

Better discipline

2

2

2

More integration between poor and wealthy

1

1

2

Early childhood intervention/development

1

1

2

Smaller classrooms

1

1

1

More help with war on drugs/crime in areas

1

1

*

End affirmative action

*

*

1

Make school more affordable

*

*

1

Other

4

3

6

No opinion

25

27

16

* Less than 0.5%

Thurgood Marshall

Marshall, whose tireless efforts to improve civil rights
indelibly marked the 1950s and 1960s, won his most important ruling
in Brown v. Board of Education before his appointment to
the Supreme Court. How do Americans remember him? When we asked
Americans about their opinion of him, the results show that blacks
are much more likely to express an opinion than whites are: 63% of
white Americans either acknowledged that they had not heard of him
or claimed to have no opinion, compared with 40% of black
Americans. Among Americans who express opinions, 31% view him
favorably, and that figure rises to 54% among blacks. Marshall's
central role in the Brown v. Board of Education case, and
his leading role in a variety of other cases that helped to break
the color line in housing, transportation, and voting are testament
to his energy in the cause of civil rights and racial equality. And
even if memory of specific events and actors fades inevitably with
time, we live in a world that has been fundamentally changed by his
vision and resolve.

Opinion of Former Supreme Court
Justice
Thurgood Marshall

January-March 2004

Survey Methods

These results are based on telephone interviews with a randomly
selected national sample of 3,017 adults, aged 18 and older,
conducted in multiple Gallup Polls in January, February, and March
2004. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one
can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling
error is ±2 percentage points. For results based on the
sample of 2,595 whites, one can say with 95% confidence that the
maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
For results based on the sample of 219 blacks, one can say with 95%
confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±7
percentage points. In addition to sampling error, question wording
and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce
error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Slightly more Americans agree (52%) than disagree (45%) that the federal government is responsible for making sure all Americans have healthcare coverage. This balance of views is similar to last year.

Americans' daily self-reports of spending averaged $98 in November, up from $93 in October. The latest figure is the highest average recorded for the month of November since Gallup began tracking consumer spending in 2008.